Deck 4: Policy Evaluation

Question 1

If we add both the immediate and long-term symbolic and tangible benefits of a policy and subtract the costs of the same, we would calculate

A) nonparametric costs and benefits.
B) total costs.
C) net benefits and costs.
D) parametric policy costs and benefits.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In a scientific study, the

A) control group and experimental group differ in most ways.
B) program is applied to the control group.
C) program is applied to the experimental group.
D) program is applied to the control group only in the "before" phase.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of these is the most common element of program evaluations?

A) site visits
B) hearings and reports
C) application of professional standards
D) public opinion surveys

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The General Accountability Office is part of

A) Congress.
B) the bureaucracy.
C) the office of the president.
D) the judiciary.

Question 5

The Office of Management and Budget is part of

A) the executive branch
B) the judiciary.
C) the Senate.
D) the House of Representatives

Question 6

The agency responsible for making sure that tax dollars are spent honestly and wisely is the

A) Office of Management and Budget.
B) General Accountability Office.
C) Congressional Budget Office.
D) Council of Economic Advisors.

Question 7

Before and after studies generally focus only on

A) target groups.
B) nontarget groups.
C) symbolic benefits.
D) projected trends.

Question 8

When people behave differently because they know they are being observed, they are demonstrating the

A) Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
B) ecological fallacy.
C) sunset review.
D) Hawthorne effect.

Question 9

Evaluation of governmental agencies does not usually include

A) site visits.
B) grand-jury inquiries.
C) evaluation of citizen complaints.
D) before-and-after research designs.

Question 10

The use of hearings and reports for program evaluation has what drawback?

A) Testimonies and reports are generally provided by those with little direct knowledge of programs.
B) This kind of information is generally biased against programs.
C) A high level of deception has been found in these hearings and reports.
D) Those giving testimony and providing reports administer the programs being evaluated.

Question 11

When the text speaks of the "dispersed costs" of government programs, to whom or to what are those costs dispersed?

A) other government programs
B) all taxpayers
C) Congress
D) rulemaking

Question 12

When we engage in policy evaluation, we are primarily interested in

A) examining policy outputs.
B) reviewing policy inputs.
C) studying policy impact.
D) examining the ultimate moral "rightness" of the policy.

Question 13

Wilson's laws deal with

A) the moral issues of policy evaluation.
B) research on policy impact.
C) the Hawthorne effect.
D) policy implementation.

Question 14

Which of the following research designs is considered "most common"?

A) before and after
B) with versus without
C) controlled group
D) experimental group

Question 15

A political approach to policy analysis emphasizes all of the following except

A) reasonable trade-offs among conflicting values at each stage of the policymaking process.
B) bargaining among participants.
C) a search for mutually beneficial outcomes for diverse groups.
D) public discourse with elected officials.

Question 16

Which of these compares the impact of a program with what would have happened without the program?

A) projected trend lines
B) before and after comparisons
C) comparisons between jurisdictions
D) comparisons between control and experimental groups

Question 17

In comparisons between control and experimental groups before and after program implementation, a major hindrance is(are)

A) the Hawthorne effect.
B) differences between jurisdictions.
C) positive biase.
D) ethical considerations.

Question 18

Symbolic policy impact deals with

A) net costs.
B) net benefits.
C) tangible accomplishments.
D) perceptions of governmental actions.

Question 19

Policy evaluation should consider

A) direct impacts on target groups only.
B) impacts on both target and nontarget groups.
C) tangible impacts only, on both target and nontarget groups.
D) symbolic impacts only on target groups.

Question 20

Which of these is addressed by politics, not policy analysis?

A) cost benefit analysis
B) policy impacts
C) value conflicts
D) long-term effects

Question 21

The idea of "concentrated benefits, dispersed costs" refers to the fact that programs are paid for by many people, but benefit relatively few.

Question 22

Comparisons between jurisdictions can be addressed by pre- and post-program comparisons.

Question 23

The Hawthorne effect relates to the positive bias inevitable in social science research.

Question 24

Before after comparisons are hampered by the difficulty of linking effects to causes.

Question 25

Symbolic benefits are generally the most tangible.

Question 26

Nontarget groups are those that are not considered when analyzing the benefits and costs of a policy.

Question 27

The use of projected trend lines is used to compare impacts in one jurisdiction to those in another.

Question 28

Unlike the Office of Management and Budget, the General Accountability Office is attached to Congress.

Question 29

Program evaluation is the central mission of the Office of Management and Budget.

Question 30

In policy evaluation, policy impact, not policy output should be measured.